As the country marks this year’s Armed Forces Remembrance Day in honour of its fallen heroes, war veterans have again called the attention of the federal government to the issue of welfare and ill treatment of retirees in the military.
In a touching narration during an interview today, 76-year-old civil war veteran, colonel Nasiru Salami (retired), chronicled his voyage in the military right from his enlistment after just 6 weeks of training to how he almost lost his right foot during the war.
Salami, now the secretary of the Nigerian legion, Lagos chapter, also lamented his unpaid pension and other post-retirement packages including his civil war survivors war bonuses promised by the government.
Appealing to the government to do the needful and improve the welfare of his colleagues and him, he said, “We are asking for war bonus, those of us who fought the war. I retired in December 1983 and they promised us heaven and earth that they would give us our war bonus but up till now, we have not seen it,”.
According to the septuagenarian, based on his experiences, he will not encourage any of his offspring to join the Nigerian army, “I am their father and they are seeing me now that my life is not to their expectation. They would want me to be higher than this, full of joy and other things that would make them happy. How would I now encourage them to join the army?
“I have two graduates now and I said to them: ‘Never you think of going to join the army. If you want to join, maybe the Navy or the Air Force. I’ve not been there but I’ve been seeing them and I’ve been hearing about them because they are treated better’.”
The retired colonel, however opined that with the right incentives, sufficient man-power, and very good weapons, the army will not just become more attractive for those hoping to enlist or rejoin, but terrorism will be a thing of the past.
